Batman 3 Will Be Titled The Dark Knight Rises, And The Riddler Isn't The Villain

The famously press-shy Christopher Nolan has always, for some reason, been willing to give interviews and drop massive scoops to The Los Angeles Times, and today over at their blog Hero Complex they've got two pretty huge ones: Batman 3 will be titled The Dark Knight Rises, and the villain won't be The Riddler.

Additionally, though in news we kind of always suspected, Nolan confirmed that he talked Warner Bros. out of jumping on the 3D bandwagon for his next film, which starts shooting next year. Instead he will continue the work he did on The Dark Knight with using IMAX cameras, an effect that still feels thrilling two years and many, many terrible 3D efforts later.

Most of everything else Nolan had to say fell in the category of "cryptic teases," such as this gem:

“We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones."

And no, he wouldn't explain why he's not using The Riddler or the significance of the title, at least not in this snippet of a longer article that will run tomorrow. So let's take a look at the title. Unlike the swap from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight, this title suggests a flow seamlessly from the second film to the third, and also, quite literally, the return of the hero we saw running away into the shadows at the end of the second movie. The title also, so far as I can tell, has never been used in a specific comics series. Given how little fealty Nolan's movies have had to the comics to begin with that doesn't surprise me, but could it mean even more swerving away from the ink-and-paper origins of the character?

Speculate with me in the comment, and look forward to tomorrow's full Times article, which--like all of their interviews with Nolan-- should definitely be a worthy read.